Method of and apparatus for collecting and padding steel wool



July 31, 1934. I c. E. GALVIN 1,968,239

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING AND PADDING STEEL WOOL Filed June 10, 1927 4 Sheets-Shet 1 In m IN VEN TOR.

Y 4;? v M ATTORNEYS.

C. E. GALVIN July 31, 1934.

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING AND PADDINGv STEEL WOOL 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 R. m. N F, k 8 m a M n 1 R J UW/H \W Ptt w w m E u n 2 M Z 6 1 F u A TTORNEYS.

July 31, 1934. c. E. GALVIN ,9 8,

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING AND PADDING STEEL WOOL Filed June 10, 1927 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVE TOR.

I ATTORNEYS.

July 31, 1934. c. E. GALVIN 1,963,289

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING AND PADDING STEEL WOOL Filed June 10, 1927 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 I N VEN TOR.

BY Q7244 ATTORNEYS.

Patented- July 31 1934 UNITED STATES ME'rnon or AND APPARATUS FOR 001.- ,LECTING AND PADDING STEEL WOOL Charles E. Galvin, Springfield, Ohio, assignor, by mesne cuts, to International-Steel Wool giliflrporation, Springfield, Ohio; a corporation of Application Jllfi'e 10. 1927, Serial No. 197,953

'lzclaims This invention relates to a'method of and apparatus for. collectingand compacting strands of steel wool from a steel wool making machine and forming the wool so collected-into pads of convenient size for commercial One of the objects of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus for carrying out the method which will enable steel wool as it is produced by a steel wool machine to be collected and formed into pads in a simple, economical and etlective manner.

Afurther object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus for carrying out themethod whereby strands of steel wool may be collected from the machine as produced, compacted or compressed in the form of a ribbon, severed in predetermined lengths and each length formed into a roll and discharged to a convenient point for handling. a

A further object of the invention is to provide a metal wool article in the form of a ribbon-like body in which the strands of metal wool will all extend in the direction of the length of the body and be held together by the-natural tendency of the strands to adhere so that the metal wool strands may be assembled in convenient form for handling in the most eflective manner, either for forming the ribbon-like body into pads for convenient packing into cartons or for using the ribbon-like body for the manufacture of other articles, such for instance as ironing pads.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of-an apparatus for carrying out my improvedmethod. I

Fig. 2 is anend elevation of the receiving end of the pad-forming apparatus.

Fig. 3 is an elevation of the opposite end of the apparatus shown in Fig. 2. e

Figs. 4 and 5 are detafls of the discharging devices for the pads;

Fig. 6 is a side elevation of the pad-forming apparatus.

Figs. '7 and 8 are details of the pad-forming apparatus.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved method and devices for collecting and removing the steel wool from the wool making machine.

Referring first to Fig. 1, there is shown at the left so much of a machine for makingsteel wool as is necessary to explain my present invention, such a machine being more fully described in my pending application Serial No. 40,143, filed June 19th, 1925. Briefly, this machine has a pair-of spaced-apart grooved drums, indicated at 1 and 2, together with mechanism (not shown in the present case) for rotating these drums inthe same direction, together with a plurality of series of cutting tools, indicated in a conventional way at 3, for severing strandsof metal froma' wire which is wrapped about the drums and trav-' els over suitable supports beneath the knives. The i metal strands, which are indicated at 4, are collected in the form of a plurality of ropes by U-shaped guides 5 at the upper ends of standards 6 and the entire series of ropes formed by these guides 5m drawn from the guides by-a feeding device which presses the ropes into a compacted 'ribbon-like form, it being characteristic of the strands to adhere together. This feeding'device is shown in.Figs.. 2 and 6 and consists of a pair ropes are drawn and compressed to. the ribbonlike character referredto. One of these reels consists of a disk 7 having a plurality of equally spaced pins 8 arranged in circular fashion, and the other reel also consists of a disk 9 having an equal number of pins 10 likewise equally" spaced and arranged in circular fashion; the pins of the respective reels intermeshing to cause the reels to rotate together. The disk '7 is rotatably mounted on a stud 11 which is supported by a bracket 12 which is mounted on a table 14 which has supporting legs 15. The disk 9 is connected with a rotatable shaft 16 which has a bearing on the bracket 12 and also at the upper end of another bracket 17. This shaft 16 has a sprocket wheel 18 driven by a sprocket chain 19 which passes about a sprocket wheel 20 connected with a shaft 21 which enters a' gear casing 22 in which is a worm gear 23 and worm, 24 whereby motion is derived from the shaft 25 of an electric motor 26. The stud 11 extends substantially the length of the pins 8" and there is placed loosely upon this stud a resilient cylindrical member, preferably an ordinary piece of hose indicated at 2'7, which is held in position by a latch 28 secured to one of the fingers 8, which cooperates with the fingers 10 to prevent slippage of the wool. An inclined half-round guide'29 is preferably provided for the strands of steel wool at a point in advance of the feeding ,device, this guide being supported on a standard 30. Rotation of the disk 9 and its pins of these fingers upon the ropes of wool is to not .of reels of. peculiar form between which the.

only draw the wool from the wool making ma- 1 chine, but also'to compress or compact it in the form of a ribbon. p

The ribbon of steel wool, which is indicated by the dotted line W, feeds downwardly by gravity from the feeding and compacting reels, as shown in Fig. 2 and is severed by a rotating knife blade 31 cooperating with a stationary blade 32. The rotating blade 31 is fast to a vertical shaft 33 which derives motion from the shaft 16 through the medium of the'beveled pinion 34 and gear 35 (Fig.5), the knife being so timed that it will sever a length of wool of a pre-determined weight. The cutting edge of the knife blade 31 is held in yielding relation with the stationary blade 32 by a coil spring 36 which is interposed between the blade 31 and a part 37 mounted on the shaft 33; the blade 31 being attached to the shaft so as to rotate therewith but allow some angular movement relative thereto.

The severed length of steel wool drops on an endless conveyer which consists of a belt 38 which passes about drums 39 and 40' located on opposite sides of the machine. The drum 40 is fast to a shaft 41 which has a pulley i2 driven by a belt 43 which passes about a pulley 44: fast to a counter shaft 45 which receives motion from the motor shaft 25 through the medium of the belt 46 and pulleys 47 and 48.

The endless carrier 38 carries the length of wool to a winding device which forms the wool into a roll. This winding device is located above the opposite end of the conveyer and consists of a short tapered spindle 49 connected with a shaft 50 which derives motion from the counter shaft 45 through the medium of the pulley 51, belt 52 and pulley 53. The tapered spindle is equipped with two members 54 having serrations or teeth which are close enough to the carrier to engage the length of wool and cause it to be wound about the spindle, the teeth being so arranged however as to offer no resistance to removal of the roll of wool in one direction of the axis of the spindle.

To discharge the rolls of woolfrom the spindle there is provided a kick-off device. This device consists of an arm 55 having a yoke-shaped portion 55', together with means for rotating the arm and imparting a quick movement thereto at one portion of its revolution so that the yokeshaped portion will engage the wool on the spindle and sweep it therefrom to a suitable point of discharge. To that end the arm 55 is connected to a disk 55 loosely mounted upon a shaft 57. Keyed to the shaft 5'? adjacent the disk 55 is another disk 58 which has a pin 59 which projects into a circular recess 50 in the disk 56; this recess being concentric to the axis of the shaft 57" and extending a major portion of the distance thereabout. A coil spring 61 has one end thereof connected to an eccentric pin 52 on the disk 55 and the other end to a stationary portion of the frame. The shaft 57 is driven from the shaft 33 through the medium of the beveled pinion 63 and beveled gear 54. Rotation of the shaft 57 causes rotation of the disk 56 by reason of the contact of the pin 59 with the end of the recess till as shown in Fig. 4. So soon as the eccentric pin 52 passes dead center, a quick movement will be imparted by the spring to the disk 56 and hence to the arm 55. The parts are so timed that this quick movement takes place during that part of the revolution of the parts which causes the forked end of the arm 55 to sweep along the spin-= die, and also at the end of the winding operation of the length of wool upon the spindle, so that the action will be for the forked portion of the arm to engage the roll of wool on the spindle during its accelerated movement and discharge the roll of wool therefrom into the open end of a spent 55,

the strands of wool as they come from the cutters, places them about the guides 5 and then carries them to the feeding reels and starts the accumulated strands to feeding through the reels, after which the reels will draw the strands from the guides in a continuous manner. The pins of which act to compress the wool, as well as feed it, and the wool leaves the feeding devices in a ribbon-like form. In Fig. 1, the strands of wool which go to the padding apparatus are being taken from the upper cutters, the strands of wool from the lower cutters going about other guides 66 in the opposite direction, the machine being shown cutting two grades of wool, the finer grade of which comes from the upper knives and is padded while the coarser grade comes from the lower knives and goes in the opposite direction and is suitably disposed of at the other end of the machine. It is usual to pack steel wool pads in cartons of a given weight and the practice heretofore has been to weigh the wool on scales as it is gathered from the machine and then manually form it into pads. With the present method and apparatus, the weight of the wool which comes from a given number of cutters set for a certain grade is known so that by properly timing the cutter, a length of wool is cut from the ribbon that leaves the feeding reels which will have a known weight. The severed piece of wool of pre-determined weight after being severed drops on to the conveyer, and as the conveyor is moving rapidly, the length of wool will be distributed on the conveyer in a lengthwise direction so that when it reaches the winding spindle, the advanced end will be engaged with the teeth of the spindle and the length of wool wound up on the spindle in the form of a roll. So soon as the length of wool is completely wound the kick-off device operates to discharge it from the spindle, and the pad thus formed is ready to be placed by the operator into the cartons.

By my method of forming the metal wool strands into a ribbon-like body, strands of metal wool are assembled in convenient form, not only for the purpose of forming the same in pads in the manner described but also for the manufacture of other metal wool products, such for instance as ironing pads as described in my pending applications Serial No. 231,382 and N0. 231,333.

A divisional application Serial No. 553,278 was filed July 27th, 1931 by applicant for the method and devices for removing the steel wool from the steel wool cutting machine.

Havingthus described my invention, I claim:

1. In an apparatus of the character described, devices for collecting and means for feeding and compressing strands of steel wool in a continuous length, means for severing the wool so formed into lengths of a pre-determined size, and mechanism for forming each length of wool into a pad consisting of a spindle upon which the length of wool is wound.

2. In an apparatus of the characterdescribed, devices for collecting and means for feeding and compressing strands of steel wool in a continuous length, means for severing the wool so formed into lengths of a pre-determined size, and mechanism for forming each length of wool into a pad consisting of a spindle upon which the length of wool is wound, and a device'for discharging the wool from said spindle. Y

3. In an apparatus of the character described, devices for collecting and means for feeding and compressing strands of steel wool in a continuous length, means for severing the wool so formed into lengths of a pre-determined size and mechanism for forming each length of wool into a pad consisting of a spindle upon which the length of wool is wound and a device for discharging the wool from said spindle consisting of a rotatable forked arm together with means for imparting a quick movement to said arm adjacent the spindle.

4. In an apparatus of the character described, devices for collecting strands of steel wool and means for feeding and compressing same into a ribbon-like form, means for severing the wool ribbon into short lengths, an endless conveyer for the severed lengths of wool, and mechanism at one end of the conveyer for receiving the short lengths of wool and bunching the same into compact form, said bunching mechanism consisting of a tapered rotating spindle having teeth on its periphery to engage the advanced end of a length of wool and cause it to be rolled upon the spindle.

5. In an apparatus of the character described, devices for collecting strands of steel wool and means for feeding and compressing same into a ribbon-like form, means for severing the wool ribbon into short lengths, an endless conveyer for the severed lengths of wool, and mechanism at one end of the conveyer for receiving the short lengths of wool and bunching the same into compact form, saidbunching mechanism consisting of a tapered rotating spindle having teeth on its periphery to engage the advance end of a length of wool and cause it to be rolled upon the spindle, said teeth being of a character to permit movement of the roll of wool in an axial direction, and a discharging device for discharging the roll of wool'from said spindle.

6. In an apparatus for forming metal wool into pads, means for feeding wool in a continuous length of ribbon-like form with the ribbon freely suspended from the discharge side of said means, a rotatable cutter timed to sever the suspended steel wool ribbon into lengths of predetermined size, and mechanism for bunching each severed length of wool.

7. In an apparatus for forming metal wool into pads,'means for feeding wool in a continuous length of ribbon-like form with the ribbon freely suspended from the discharge side of said means,

a rotatable cutter timed to sever the suspended size, a conveyer for the severed lengths of wool, and mechanism at the discharge end of said conveyer for separately bunching the severed lengths of wool.

8. In a machine for making pads of steel wool, gathering means for a plurality of steel wool strands to gather them into ribbon-like form, feeding means for feeding the strands so gathered, cutting means for severing the ribbon of steel wool strands into sections, means under saidcutting means for receiving said sections as they fall vertically downward, and for thereafter forming them into pads, and a source of power having connections to said feeding means, cutting means, and pad forming means.

9. In a machine for making pads of steel wool, gathering means for a plurality of steel wool strands to gather them into ribbon-like form, feeding means for feeding the strands so gathered, cutting means consisting of cutter blades one at least of which moves in a line transverse to the line of feed of the strands for severing sections of the steel wool strands, means under said cutting means for receiving said sections as they fall vertically downward, and for thereafter forming them into pads, and a source of power having connections to said feeding mea'ns, cutting means, and pad forming means.

10. In an apparatus for forming metal wool into pads, means for feeding strands of wool in a continuous length of ribbon-like form with the ribbon freely suspended from said means, cutting means timed to sever the suspended metal wool ribbon into lengths of predetermined size, and mechanism for thereafter bunching each-severed length of wool.

11. In an apparatus for forming metal wool into pads, means for feeding strands of wool in a continuous length of ribbon-like form with the ribbon freely suspended from the discharge side of said means, cutting means timed to sever the suspended metal wool ribbon into lengths of predetermined size, a conveyer for the severed lengths of wool, and mechanism at the discharge end of said conveyer for separately bunching the severed lengths of wool.

12. In an apparatus for forming metal wool into pads, means for feeding strands of wool in a continuous length of ribbon-like form with the ribbon freelysuspended from the discharge side of said means, cutting means timed to sever the suspended metal wool ribbon into lengths of predetermined size, and mechanism for thereafter rolling each severed length of wool from one end to the other.

CHARLES E. GALVIN. 

